Everyone in the South knows that on New Year’s Day, the only meal to eat is lucky beans and greens. This is some old folk magick, y’all. Now, my Kentucky and Alabama Grannies would tell you that this meal MUST consist of black eyed peas. The North Carolina Grannies, will insist on collard greens. They’ll all swear on a stack of bibles that you eat the beans to draw coins, and greens to draw green cash money into the New Year.
In the witching biz, we call this “sympathetic magick.” I want more of a thing; I find something at hand that resembles – is in sympathy – with the wanted thing; I internalize the sympathetic thing; BOOM! I draw to me the REAL THING! In this case, we literally CONSUME the sympathetic money, and hope for both internal and external riches.
I don’t much like black eyed peas, and I just ate my weight in delicious Maple Berbere Collard Greens at Solstice. So, I’ve come up with an even better recipe – with the same nine dried beans I use to do my Money Pot Harvest Spell. For ease of the one-pot meal, and sheer laziness, I’ve added some dark green, much-faster-to-prepare, RICH in nutrients, Kale. This version is also vegan, which suits my dinner guests just fine. As far as I’m concerned, I’ve upped the ante on this old recipe.
I’m making this version in my new slow cooker just gifted to me this holiday. If you have a crock pot of any kind this will work great. Just let it cook all day while you rest, nurse the champagne hang-over, and dream of all the possibilities in the new year.
Money Pot Spell: “9 different types of dried beans/legumes–Nine is a number often used in hoodoo spells for timing and numbers of ingredients. I was taught that in mojo hands, for example, there should always be 9 materials added, that odd numbers were lucky, and multiples of 3 the most powerful. 3×3 is a potent number in many traditions.
The beans themselves are seeds. They contain the information and power to grow and expand into vastly more sustenance than merely eating the one bean would bring. We are “planting” these many beans in our pot for their potential to grow into much more.”
Lucky Beans and Greens Recipe
Ingredients
- 4 cups Low-sodium V8 Juice – a blend of tomato and veggie juices
- 4 cups water
- 9 different varieties of dried beans – 1/4 cup each (2 1/4 cups total) A bag of 9 bean soup mix is handy
- 2 cups carrots, diced
- 2 cups celery, diced
- 1 large onion, diced
- 5-6 cloves of minced garlic
- 2 teaspoons Thyme
- 2 teaspoons Cumin
- 2 teaspoons Chili powder
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 teaspoon pepper
- 6 tablespoons Bragg’s Amino Acids
- 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
- 2 cups fresh Kale, cut off the stems, and the green leafy part sliced into ribbons.
- 2 Tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive oil
Directions:
The night before, rinse the beans in a colander under cool water, and remove any debris or unsightly beans. Transfer to the crock, and cover with four times more water than beans, then soak over night. After 8 hours, drain and discard the soak water, to reduce gas.
Add back all the beans, diced veggies and spices to the crock pot, cover with the V8 Juice and water. Cover; cook on low heat setting 8 hours, or so. Don’t uncover or stir for at least 5 hours – be really gentle with the beans or they’ll go all mushy on you. Then check for doneness every hour or so. When they have a bit of al dente tooth, but squish between the fingers with a little pop, and are soft inside, that is done.
Increase heat setting to High. Add the Bragg’s Amino Acids, Apple cider vinegar and kale. Stir it all in. Cook 15 minutes more until kale is softened. Turn off heat, add the olive oil.
Taste, and adjust to your preference by adding more Bragg’s Liquid Aminos for more saltiness, vinegar for brightness, or pepper and olive oil for earthy richness. Make sure to remove the bay leaf before serving.
I like to serve this meal with my cheesy tomato polenta. If you prefer to have collard greens with your traditional meal, just leave it out the Kale and try my Berbere Collard Green recipe.
Happy New Year!
~Heron
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In